Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 14:27 "Turning Off the Road"

Proverbs 14 verse 27. The title of the message tonight is turning off the road. And the topic is something that come up last week Last Wednesday and also come up Sunday in Brother Shepherd's message as well in the Sunday school hour. And that's the fear of the Lord. And I was thinking today that with that coming up so frequently lately that It tells us the importance of the fear of the Lord and how we need to understand it and how we need to have that as a a uh attribute of our own Christian lives. As we learned last week, the fear of the Lord, we won't get into all of that over again. But the fear of the Lord is speaking about our reverence for God in his word. And Brother Shepherd brought that out in the Sunday school hour, so he had The Wednesday night, learning about that, and then the Sunday school hour with Job. And Job's friend said, is not this your fear? And uh, you know, is this this is just this is your time to reverence God in all of this. And and uh And now we see it again tonight about our reverence for God and his word. And we're talking about God's word. Remember that God's word is life. It's a lot of things. It's light. It's knowledge. But God's word is life itself. John, the Gospel of John chapter 1, verse 1 through 4. The Bible says in the beginning was the Word. Now right there it tells us that God's Word, which is life, is also God himself, right? Because anything that's in the beginning is God. Because he was the only one here in the beginning. In the beginning was the Word. And the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. So now we see that the word is a person. A person. All things were made by the word, by him. And without him, the word was not anything made that was made. In him that is in that word was life. And the life was the light of men. So the Word of God is the son of God, is the life of God. It's very beautiful. Because people say, uh, and and uh I think it was Joy Bear and and that that crazy woman on the The view. Yeah, they one of one of them. I've never watched an episode. I've just seen clips. And they're scary. But uh I was reading an article today where uh she was uh saying uh you know very profoundly that jesus didn't go around claiming to be the messiah and uh i tell you what um Jesus hasn't come down here on stage. He hasn't met us in our bedroom and you know in the physical form. He hasn't walked the earth as a man since he ascended. And there would be people to argue and say, oh no, he has, Brother Richard. He's been seen in Africa. He's been seen here and there. Jesus himself said no If anyone says I'm here or there, you believe him not. He said, I'm going to come in the clouds. That's how I'm coming. So all of those things are lies. But he hasn't shown up in physical form. But he has shown up in literal form, if we can say that carefully, because he is the word of God. So when we are reading the scriptures We are actually in contact with God. We're in contact with his son And his son directly communicates to us through the scriptures. He is God's word. I'm not saying the ink and the letters and the paper. are God's word. They're not. But the message and the truth that's conveyed to us through that medium is divine. It's the word of God. And the word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is God the Son. So eternal life is found in God's word alone. It has power Life-giving power. And his word to us is the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who receive God's word concerning Jesus receive life Those who reject God's word concerning Jesus receive eternal damnation. Concerning the word, John went on to say in the Gospel of John chapter 1, verse 11 and 12. He came unto his own, that is, the word came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So how do you receive him? That's the beautiful thing about the Gospel of John. We'll be right back in Proverbs in a minute. We're going to get here so we'll understand Proverbs. That's the beautiful thing about the Gospel of John. How do you receive the Son? By receiving the Word. How do you receive the Word even to them that what? Believe. on his name. When you believe the record concerning God's Son, you receive the Son the record testifies about. You cannot receive God's word without receiving God's Son. You cannot believe on the Lord Jesus Christ without believing on the word. You can't believe on the word and not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you put your faith in what God's Word says concerning His Son, You have put your faith in God's Son Himself. Those who will have a reverence for God's word will therefore revere God's Son. That's how come when Jesus was here, he told those Pharisees, because they kept wanting to quote the scriptures. He says, if you believed Moses, you would have believed me. That's simple. They did not revere God's word. Therefore they did not revere God's Son. And those who revere him shall live, for the fear of the Lord, Solomon says. Look back in your text nine Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is what? Is a fountain of life Life. A similar verse in Proverbs 13, 14 says, the law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Very, very similar scripture. But instead of being the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, in that chapter it's the law of the wise is a fountain of life. Well, guess what the law of the wise is? It's Christ, the law of the wise. So the law points us to Jesus. That's what the law is all about. So the fear of the Lord is based on our reverence of God's word, God's law, God's Son. And it is a fountain of that reverence of his word and of his son is a fountain, the Bible says, of life. So how is the fear of the Lord? Not like a fountain, because it is a fountain. Didn't say it's like a fountain. How is the fear of the Lord a fountain? That made me thirsty thinking about that, subjectively, I guess, just subjective thoughts. Back there In the vestibule is a luxurious fountain. We only get luxury stuff around here. Very luxurious fountain. That we had put in recently. And uh it puts out good water. How many of y'all drank out of that, by the way? Just a few? It's pretty good water, isn't it? Pretty good water. That's a fountain. It's not water. It's a fountain. But to get that water, you've got to go to that fountain. It gives life, physical life to thirsty people, right? And so as a figure of speech, when we're looking at the fear of the Lord being a fountain, We're seeing that it is a source as we have to go to that fountain in the vestibule to get drinking water for this building. You have to go to a particular fountain in order to get drinking water, not for physical life, but drinking water for the spiritual life that the word is. The word that the life is in that word. So a fountain gives life to a thirsty man, and as water gives life to thirsty people, the fear of the Lord gives life to thirsty people too. I like that in the book of Revelation. Let him that is of thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely, the Bible says in the book of the Revelation. But to get to that water of life, you'd have to say, well, where is that water of life? Back in the day, if you wanted some water, you'd have to go to a well. or to a spring, or to a river, but there'd be someplace that water was contained. Water has to come from someplace. It's not just floating around in the air. And we just go over and take a sip out of it, or we don't just absorb it into our bodies. Water is contained in a certain location, and biblically and historically, we have always treasured our water sources. When someone wanted to get to a another group of people in the Bible, they'd go stop their wells up. Or they'd steal their wells. But that source of life-giving water is a precious, precious source. Water is contained in a certain location, and even so the water of life of everlasting life is contained in a certain location too. It's contained in God's word and in the fear of the Lord, which is the It serves as the fountain that that water comes from. The fear of the Lord. Physical waters contained in lakes, in wells. But spiritual water, the type of water that gives everlasting life, is contained in the Word of God. And that's what the law of the wise is of Why, excuse me, the law of the wise is a fountain of life, and the fear of the Lord is like thirst The fear of the Lord is that thirst, it's that reverence for God's word that causes a man to know, appreciate, and drink. the life that God has for him. Without that fear of the Lord, there is no thirst. There is no seeking for the for the water. There's no being drawn to the water, and there's no consumption of the water. So the fear of the Lord is a fountain. It's something you have to go to, something you must be at and near to. You're not going to get the water without the fear. It's just not going to come. John chapter 7 verse 37 and 38. John 7, 37 and 38. Listen to what happens here. And the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, Now I want you to watch. We've read this verse before. But watch the word if. If that means it's conditional. If any man thirst Let him come unto me. Why? He's the word. He has the life. He's the water of life. What do you do? You drink. But you're not going to drink unless you thirst. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me What do we learn from that? Believing is the same as drinking. If you believe on Jesus, you just drink the water from the fountain. You see? He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said Out of his belly shall flow rivers of what? Living water. So the living water Jesus is speaking of has to come from a particular fountain. It comes from the fountain of the law of the wise. It comes from the fountain of the fear of the Lord. And without the law of the wise, Without the fear of the Lord, that water is not attainable. Simply not. That's why Jesus conditionally said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He's not saying, well now, You need to check yourself and see if you're thirsty before you come. But what he is telling us is this. If a man doesn't thirst, He's not going to come, he's not going to drink. We've all heard the old adage, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. That's got to come from the horse. That horse has to be thirsty for water. And in the same way, you can lead a person to God's word as often as you want. You can bring them to church as a child. You can witness to them as an adult. You can uh uh let them uh listen to the Bible all day long, preaching all day long, but if they're not thirsty, they're not going to drink. That's simple. And the thirst is the fear of the Lord. It's that reverence for God's word that causes us to want to drink it. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. For from that fountain we drink the truth of Jesus Christ. And without that thirst we would never drink at all. But when we do drink, The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to do something. Look back in your text, to depart. To depart. And literally that means to turn off, such as if someone that's going on a road And you take an exit and you turn off that road. That's what that word depart means. And as sinners, we are all born headed the same direction, and that's the direction of death. It's a point that a man wants to die, but the fear of the Lord causes us to turn off our natural course that we were born on in Adam, so that we may depart. And so when you think of departing here Because we're going to be looking at, we're going to be departing from a snare. When you can think of getting loose from a snare, departing away from that snare. And so it says that we may depart where? From the snares of death. The snares of death. And a snare is a hidden noose. Y'all seen it before. They'd take a take a limb, as a you know, a springy limb, and he'd make a they'd make a noose and set a little trap in there, and then the little critter comes in there and It snares that critter and that noose. And there's a noose, a snare that's hidden for us. And it's not just any old noose. It's the snare of death. And snares that don't simply bring physical death, which definitely is included in this text. But we're talking about snares that bring spiritual and eternal death to man. When the Israelites entered the promised land, they were supposed to drive the people out of that land. Because God knew that if they'd stayed there with those people, and this has been on my mind here recently because of our vacation Bible school, I did something different this year. I told you all about it Sunday. that uh with the the introduction of paganism in our nation, uh that that's coming into our nation, I wanted to do a study on God being God alone versus all the other false gods that are out here in this world. And so it's been on my mind lately. And in the Old Testament, God told them, when you go into that land. that you don't serve their gods. You drive those people out of your land. You destroy them, you drive them completely out. Why? Because of their worship of false gods. And God told Israel in Exodus 23, 33. They shall not dwell in thy land. Talking about the Canaanites, the high tides, the parasites, talking about the natural inhabitants of that land. He says, they shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me. For if thou serve their gods, It will surely be a, and there's our word, snare unto thee. It'll be a snare of death. It'll be something that catches you, you're not going to be able to get out of. And I and I was I couldn't help but think studying this message about all those people in India worshiping those false gods. It wasn't that long ago. Two, three years ago, maybe a little longer, I don't know if it quite that long, but we had some Indians who were members of this church. Y'all remember them? They were in South Africa. Do you remember that? South Africa. Precious, precious people. Who came to faith in Christ, joined our church, and were online members, Keith, and uh Vedan. Vedan and their their wives. And now babies. And uh but Vedan's wife being Indian before she married Vedan Her family was Hindu. And so they worshiped these little idols, these little false gods. And she'd get in trouble. They get very angry. They'll persecute you. But she'd get in trouble. They wanted to force her to burn incense to this false God, and she wouldn't do it. And uh I think that kind of rushed the marriage along a little bit too, you know, hey, I gotta get out of here. But uh God said, if you worship their gods, if you serve their gods, it'll be a snare to you. It doesn't matter how many people in India have those little gods. Without the word of God, there is no life. There's no hope. There's nothing but these little figurines that people carved with their own hands. To picture their own imagination of the gods they created in their own minds. And they're without hope altogether. But the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. Boy, every time they burn incense to one of those false gods, Lord Shiva or whoever it is, they're drinking out of an empty well. The book of Jude calls them clouds without water. They go unto it, but there's no water there. And And so he says it's going to be a snare. If a person rejects God and serves false gods, he will die without the mercy of God, having never known Jesus Christ. So a false God is a snare of death. Anything at all that keeps a person from the gospel of Jesus Christ is a snare of death. Snare of death. Our country, our world, our nation, I tell you what, even with a so-called Christian administration in Washington, And I thank God for the Christians that we have that are in office. I believe we do have good Bible-believing Christians. in Washington, but I tell you what, there is so much false Christianity. False Christianity And anything that keeps a person from the true gospel of Jesus Christ is a snare of death. And so the Bible goes on. to say that uh the the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to cause us to depart, to get out of that snare of death. Because the fear of the Lord draws us to Jesus Christ. The fear of the Lord calls us to fear God's judgment. The fear of the Lord causes us to seek deliverance from our sin. The fear of the Lord calls us to greatly desire a relationship with our Creator. To me it's it's logical to to see yourself as a creation And to want to know the God that made you. I went through that. I sought that. I was thirsty for that. And without that thirst, there is no seeking. Without that seeking, there is no finding. Jesus said, seek and you'll find. Knock the door shall be opened unto you. Solomon said the fear of the Lord is a fountain. The fountain is a place where water is found. And those who have the fear of the Lord find Jesus, the water of life. You can't have a reverence for your Creator without ultimately being led by that reverence. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God to God's Son and the truth of the gospel. Now, the fountain's available for everyone. Why? Because Jesus died for everyone. The water of life died for everyone. The rock that was smitten put out water for everybody to drink. But the fountain cannot be opened apart from the fear of the Lord. Apart from that, fountain's closed. There's a passage in the book of Exodus. Not Exodus Genesis. It's where Oh, Brother Shepard, help me with the name here. Y'all know Hamlet names. I get stories, but I forget names. The young man goes, there's a stone over the well, and he's waiting for these people to come move the stone on the well And they're waiting for people to come remove the stone. And so finally this one man says, I'll remove it so you can drink out of it. Does anyone remember that besides me? Might be in a book of the book of Richard. I'm gonna find that How about it's the judges? Is it judges? Hang on, hang on. We're gonna we're gonna get it. Just a second here. I hope we get it. Genesis 29, 2. And he looked, and behold, a well in the field, and lo there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of it uh for out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. In thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep. And put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye, and they said of Haronarway, and he said unto them, Know ye Laban, da da da da da da, he is well Here we go. Verse 8. And they said we cannot, that is, we can't water our uh we can't water the flock. until all the flocks begat together, until they rolled the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep. And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came uh with her father's sheep, for she kept them, and it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock. of Laban, his mother's brother. So the well was there. The water was in the well, but that well had a great stone on it. And in order to get to that water, that stone had to be removed. It's the same way with Jesus. The well's there. The well's there. I was looking for my physical Bible. The well's there. The water's in there. The life is in the water. It is the water of life. You come to that fountain. But part of that fountain is to have an open mouth on that well. That stone's got to be removed. It's the fear of the Lord that works conjointly with the law of the wise and takes that stone Off of the well so the water can be accessed. That's how it works Fountain cannot be opened apart from the fear of the Lord. For those who do not thirst for God will never seek his water. Now listen, in the end times We're going to see a great turning of the Jewish people. Just as we see people today who end up having a great turning in their life toward the Lord. Sometimes people will live their lives so foolishly when they're young. And then when they get older, their hearts will turn. A lot of people do that. They'll get older, they'll say, My life is such a waste, and their heart will turn, they'll start seeking spiritual things. And when then when they start reverencing God's word, that That uh stone will roll off that, and they'll drink out of that water. And and right now, if you'll look in the Jewish nation, you'll see the stone rolled on top of the well. They have the Torah. They have that Old Testament law. And with that Old Testament law, I promise you, I teach through Genesis of Jesus with that Old Testament, mu almost everybody. That goes to the Genesis to Jesus class. Everyone who comes to faith in Christ will do so before we get to the New Testament. It's amazing. Now it is with some New Testament knowledge. But it is using that Old Testament to teach it. And right now, you look at that Jewish nation. They have the Torah. They have that Old Testament. They have the water of life right in front of them. But the stones on the whale's mouth. The Bible puts it this way. There's a veil over their eyes, a veil over their face they can't see. Do you know what keeps that veil on those eyes? The lack of the fear of God. The Bible says there is no fear of God before their eyes. So if there is the fear of God before their eyes, then there is no veil before their eyes. Make sense? It's the same way when it comes to the water of life in that fountain. The stone is on that fountain. The fear of the Lord takes that stone away and waters the flock, waters God's sheep when they come. But it's got to be the fear of the Lord. And I was reading an article the other day about the Israeli defense forces. And I saw a picture, I guess it's what we would call a chaplain over here in their military, and boy, this I'll just use the word chaplain. I know there's a different name for them in the IDF, but the Israeli Defense Forces, I'm telling you this backpack that this guy had on. It stood so far above his head and it came way down here and it is big old backpack. In what it was, was a portable synagogue that he carries into the battlefield. And they have a nickname for it. They call it the Tactical Torah. The Tactical Torah. But he'll take it and he'll lug that thing and then wherever they set up their base at. He can unzip that, set it up, and it'll pop pop up and become a small synagogue so they can have their worship services in it with that rabbi And I remember reading that article. And I remember thinking, oh, they're so close They have God's word. Why can't they see when we're preaching about Jesus dying as a sacrifice, when they hear us call him the Lamb of God, why can't they see in their own word that God demands a sacrifice for sin and without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness. It says it in their word right in front of them. And I just kept thinking, why can't they see that? The reason is there's no fear of God before their eyes. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. to depart from the snares of death. And I begin thinking and praying, God open their eyes. Let some of those young men, as they're reading through their their Old Testament scriptures, let them turn their hearts toward you. And listen, when their hearts turn to God, that stone's going to come off that well. They're going to get that water and they're going to be saved. In the end times, God's Spirit is going to convert the people of Israel. Before Jesus comes back, nations are going to begin to gather against Israel. Boy, you think it's a hotbed over there now. You just wait. You think there's problems over in the Middle East now? You just wait. And in that end, he's going to deliver his nation of Israel. Not temporarily as he did in 1 and 2 Kings. Where they'd be delivered from some skirmish and then they'd get a bad king and go right back into. No, no. He's going to deliver them eternally. He's going to roll the stone. He's going to convert the heart, which then rolls the stone off the water, off the well. Which is going to then drive them to the water of life, which is their Messiah, Jesus Christ. Zechariah chapter 13, verse 1 speaks about that day. When their eyes are going to be opened, they're going to thirst with the fear of the Lord. Zechariah 13, 1. In that day, There shall be a fountain, what? What's that word? Opened. What does that tell us right there? It tells us that fountains have two conditions. Open and closed. Right now there is a fountain. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that blood, lose all their guilty stains. But right now, he says, in that day there shall be a fountain opened. Which tells us in this day there's a fountain closed. Make sense? When they get the fear of God before their eyes, and I tell you it breaks my heart when I see Benjamin Netanyahu get up on television, and he thinks. He's scoring points with Americans by talking about how Israel is gay friendly. I don't know if y'all ever heard him talk about that. I have. How he says, you know, we have gays and we have this and we have that. We're tolerant just like you. And when he says it, I cringe. They don't have the fear of God right now. But one day, that fountain is going to be open, and it's going to be the fear of the Lord that opens that fountain. And they're going to have access to the water of life. He said, in that day there should be a fountain opened to whom? To the house of David. That prophecy must be fulfilled. And to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, what's that fountain going to be open for? For sin and for uncleanness. They're going to drink the water from that fountain, and their sin and uncleanness is going to be gone. Sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain. It's going to be gone The fountain's going to be open, and they're going to drink that living water by believing on the same Jesus you and I believe on right now. Same one. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. We thank you for the fountain of life. We thank you, Father, that for the understanding tonight that that fountain can be opened or closed. We thank you that the fear of the Lord, Father, like Jacob Doesn't wait, but goes and rolls the stone back for the desire of that water. And Father, I pray, dear Lord God, I pray for our lost loved ones. That we have, I pray for each and every one of our lost loved ones tonight. I pray for the Israelites. I pray for them as they read that Torah. I pray you'll take young men and young women and cause them to seek your face. And our loved ones who are lost to seek your face and make the things of this world become strangely dim to them and make them, Father, long for you, their God. Convert their hearts. May that fountain be open. And may they drink, Father God, and receive everlasting life, we pray. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.